Chapter 12 Sport Psych

Front 1

Question 2: In a sentence of two each, describe severalcauses of problem behaviours shown by young athletes.

Back 1

Problem behaviours are often caused by

- athlete’s lack of understanding on what is expected from them

-some natural reinforcers may also be present which reinforces problem behaviours.

-Some problematic behaviours may also rise because they do not have the necessary skill to earn rewards for skilled athletic performances and, therefore, would not allow them to earn reinforcers.

- Problem behaviours may also arise from process of operant extinction because usual reinforcers are withheld for the reinforced behaviour.

-Other problem behaviours may stem from dynamic interpersonal interaction of the athletes where it may lead to distraction and affect athlete’s performance.

Front 2

Question 5: For a sport with whichyou are familiar, list at least five desirable behaviours at young athletesthat are desirable and undesirable at typical practices.

Back 2

As a volleyball player there are quite a few behaviours that are easily observable:

Undesirable Behaviours

· Playing with their phone during practices.

· Chatting and seating on the benches while game practice is on.

· Leaving the practice game when benched.

· Doing half of the practice drills and moving on. · Immediately leaving the gym once practice is over and not helping out with clean-up.

Desirable Behaviours

· Discussing with players playing on the field and providing feedback.

· Doing their drills and focusing on correct forms. · Voluntarily assisting other players with coupled-practice.

· Consistently attending practice sessions.

· Arriving early to prep the gym for volleyball practice.

Front 3

#7 Four steps that a coach might take at the beginning of a season to minimize chances of problem behaviours occurring in the first place:

Back 3

1) Coach identifies reasonable rules concerning desirable and undesirable behaviours of athletes.

2) Coach identifies consequences for rule violations

3) Coach obtains a commitment from the athletes to follow the rules

4) Coach monitors desirable and undesirable behaviour during the season, and provides feedback

Front 4

Question 8: In several sentences,describe the three steps of the strategy followed by Coach Hume to decreaseoff-task practice behaviours of the figure skaters.

Back 4

#8 Describe the three steps of the strategy followed by coach Hume to decrease off-task practice behaviours of the figure skaters are:pg 183First step was to identify specific desirable behaviours

Second step was to devise a strategy for the skaters to self-monitor the occurrence of the desirable practice behaviour

The third step was to provide feedback to the skaters for improvement.

Front 5

Question 9: Define Stimulus controland how was this involved in the program with figure skaters developed by CoachHume?

Back 5

Stimulus control: refers to the correlation between the occurrence of a particular stimulus and the occurrence of a particular response, e.g. Stimulus control was involved/used with the (Coach Hume’s) figure skaters through the use/practice of positive self-talk(stimulus) such as “I refuse to let negative emotions interfere with my practice”, to elicit desirable behaviour.

Front 6

Question 11: Define positivereinforcement. How was positive reinforcement used by Coach Hume in the programwith figure skaters?

Back 6

Positive reinforcement involves the presentation of a reinforcer immediately after a behaviour, and an effect or result, the behaviour is strengthened, e.g. Coach Hume used positive reinforcement with figure skaters, by providing feedback to the athletes after their performance and praised them for their progress.

Front 7

#14 What are two differences in the self-recording program with figure skaters used by Coach Hume versus the public posting program with tennis players applied by Galvan and Ward? What do you see as the relative advantages or disadvantages of the two approaches?

Back 7

In the self-recording program with figure skaters used by Coach Hume versus the public posting program with tennis players applied by Galvan and Ward are:One difference between Coach Hume and Galvan and Ward’s self-recording programs is that the tennis players graphs showing their inappropriate behaviour would be posted on a bulletin board where everyone could see while the figure skates graphs focused more on their performance skills that had to do with the sport.Another difference between the two self-recording programs is that the figure skaters would have to have problem behaviour at practice for the coaches to identify an alternative behaviour and the reinforcer needed to achieve that alternative behaviour. While the tennis players met with the coach beforehand and the coach instructed them on multiple ways to control their behaviour while it happensAdvantage & Disadvantages: the advantages of Coach Hume’s approach is that it is more sensitive to the athletes while focusing more towards the sport than to behaviour, but the problem is that it does not have drastic results like the tennis players did and also the problem behaviour had to occur in practice for the coaches to assess the problem and devise a solution. The advantage of Galvan and Ward’s approach is that it had fast results and was depicted by the athletes as acceptable and helpful. Also, their approach was more proactive instead of reactive since the coach would devise strategies for changing unacceptable behaviour while it happens. The disadvantage I see in this approach is that it seems like a harsh approach.

Front 8

Question 15: Briefly describe theeducation sign prompting program applied by Yu and Martin to increase ball markrepairing by golfers. Does their program rely on natural reinforcers ordeliberately managed reinforcers. Justify.

Back 8

Yu noticed a large amount of ball marks on putting greens, so to try and influence golfers to fix their ball marks he created a sign with an explanation and photographs of some unrepaired ball marks, a description of how to repair ball marks with photographs, and a request for golfers to help repair the marks. This program relies on deliberately managed reinforcers because the golfers behaviour was manipulated (via sign) in order to change the behaviour (increased amount of fixed ball marks).

Front 9

Question 16: Describe a plausibleexample of self-reinforcement that might be used by an athlete that is not inthis chapter.

Back 9

An example of self-reinforcement would be when a hockey player says “good shot” every time he or she does so

Front 10

Describe the three approaches to gathering information during a functional assessment:

Back 10

One approach is to conduct an interview and/or questionnaire assessment of the people familiar with the client.

A second approach is to perform an observational or descriptive assessment in which an observer carefully observes and describes the apparent antecedents and immediate consequences of the problem behaviour of the individual as it occurs.

A third approach is to conduct a functional analysis, which is the systematic manipulation of environmental events to experimentally test their role as antecedents or consequences in controlling or maintaining specific problem behaviours.